Wednesday 29 August 2012

With the prohibitionists

I've got an article up at the Adam Smith Institute blog on the subject of tobacco prohibitionists.

Contrary to some excitable headlines, Tasmania has not banned the sale of cigarettes to anyone born in the 21st century. Such a move has been proposed, but it is most unlikely that the Australian state’s Lower House will allow it to become law. Nevertheless, it is another sign that anti-smoking campaigners are ready to come out of the closet and admit that they are prohibitionists. For decades, any suggestion that advocates for a ‘smoke-free world’ secretly wanted to criminalise the sale of tobacco were met with denial and protestation. This was not a witch-hunt against smokers, they said, only a campaign for better education, or restricting advertising, or protecting bar-staff, or saving the children.

The Tasmanian ruse, which was first mooted in Singapore, retains a ‘think-of-the-children’ element by forbidding those born after the year 2000 from purchasing tobacco products. Since the eldest of these people are currently twelve years old, this is not immediately controversial, but in a few years time it will mean prohibition for the first wave of adult consumers. This crucial fact seemed to escape some Tasmanians, like the gentleman who told ABC News that the proposal "definitely has my support mate because I believe that children shouldn't be smoking." This sentiment is, of course, besides the point. The real question is whether future generations should be treated like children forevermore; the Peter Pans of tobacco control.


Do go have a read...

6 comments:

JohnB said...

Interviewer: So, Professor, could you give us your views on the Tasmanian proposal.

Crapman: Well….huh… I’ve never met a parent who said they want their child to grow up to be a smoker.

Interviewer: No, Professor, about the Tasmanian proposal.

Crapman: More than 90% of smokers regret they ever took up the habit….. sorry…. addiction. These are nicotine addicts.

Interviewer: Professor, about the Tasmanian proposal.

Crapman: Smoking causes 15,000 deaths every year in Australia, millions around the world. By the end of the century, it will have killed billions; by the year 3000, many, many, many billions. By the year 5000, it will have killed……

Interviewer: Professor, there are those that claim that antismoking advocates have been lying for years, highlighting that antismokers have long stated that they had no intention to socially-engineer a smokefree society. And, yet, here we are at an “endgame” scenario in Tasmania.

Crapman: Oh, I see. I see. You’re one of those tobacco industry stooges. You’re an errand boy for the merchants of death. How much are they paying you? You’re a disgrace to your profession. Don’t you know who I am? I’m a professor of Public Health. I know everything.

Interviewer: Professor, Professor, could you please address the question?

Crapman: Is that what you want? You want children to smoke? And in 60 years time those children will be killed by smoking. That blood – that children’s blood - will be on your hands. You’re complicit in the mass murder of children. You should be arrested on the spot.

JohnB said...

Here’s some background on Crapman.

Crapman has been with the current antismoking crusade from the early days. His presentation of “The Lung Goodbye” at the 5th World Conference on Smoking & Health (1983) provided the fanatics with propaganda avenues. Crapman was responsible for the “Chapman Trick”. It is a trick used incessantly over the last 30 years that promotes the deranged idea that smokers are inhaling “poison” (e.g., ant poison, embalming fluid, rocket fuel, etc) and that nonsmokers are being “poisoned” by secondhand smoke. For more on the Chapman Trick:
http://cfrankdavis.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/doctors-in-name-only/#comments
http://cfrankdavis.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/5894/
http://cfrankdavis.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/tobacco-shoots-up/

Crapman also floated the idea that medical doctors who smoke should be barred from practicing medicine. He was also the driving force in Australia for making “fire-safe” cigarettes mandatory. These cigarettes involve the use of paper with glue rings along its length. The use of such paper increases the chemical load of manufactured cigarettes. These FS cigarettes were never health tested. So we have Public Health advocates making cigarettes more hazardous and never bothering to have them health tested.

Crapman has been high-profile in denormalization propaganda….. you know….. smokers stink, smokers are a burden to society, etc.
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/17/1/25

He even received recognition from the then NSW Premier for his denormalization efforts (btw Carr was brought out of retirement recently to become the Foreign Minister):
http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newscategoryid=1&newsstoryid=1910

Chapman was a Member, Expert Advisory Panel on Tobacco and Health (1985-2000) for the World Health Organization -
http://tobacco.health.usyd.edu.au/site/supersite/contact/pdfs/CV_Chapman.doc

Crapman has also advocated “smoker licensing”:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/now-butt-out-new-push-seeks-to-outlaw-cigarettes-20110521-1ey2s.html


JohnB said...

More recently, Crapman has been involved in getting outdoor bans implemented.

Crapman’s University of Sydney has banned smoking on campus, save four designated smoking areas that are close to the perimeter of the university anyway.
In this article, Crapman reiterates his position that he does not support outdoor bans except in al-fresco dining areas. He certainly does not support bans that effectively stamp out smoking on an entire university campus. Although he does not agree with such bans, he does not question the mental state of those proposing/instituting
such bans, i.e., bigotry. He spends most of the article reinforcing TC propaganda, e.g., “no safe level”. And, of course, Crapman has to indulge in his incoherent analogies:
“Someone smoking next to me while I eat lunch outdoors is not going to really harm me, but the imposition is unpleasant in the same way as loud music away from music venues or dog faeces underfoot.”
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/why-even-wowsers-argue-about-smoke-bans-20120222-1to4x.html#ixzz1nD5K0cJ3

Now here’s the thing. While Crapman claims he does not support university-wide bans in particular, he is, again, lying. This is an [Australian] advocacy manual for instituting smoking bans at universities, beginning with a few [inconvenient] designated smoking areas, eventually followed by a complete smoking ban on the entire campus. Lo and behold, there’s Crapman’s signature to the plan (p.2).

Guide For A Tobacco Free Campus
http://www.ashaust.org.au/pdfs/TFcampusGuideAus09.pdf

From the same "Guide", you’ll also notice that he is a board member of ASH. ASH was also behind the recent, despicable “Lavac Incident” that Crapman surely must have been aware of:
http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/peter-lavac-whole-story.html
http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/march-of-morons.html

BTW To the best of my knowledge, as of the end of August, Lavac has still not filed the “intended” lawsuit.

Chris, if you read Lavac’s testimony
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/ffc3db11ffc31799ca2571650018fdf6/$FILE/1%20May%202006.pdf

you’ll notice that on the Legislative Council is Chesterfield-Evans. Chesterfield-Evens was one of the originators, with Chapman, of Buga-Up. He is a rabid antismoker. There are contributions by C-E in the Godber Blueprint. Small world!

Ivan D said...

So how did Australians end up with Gillard, Roxon and Chapman running the show? They owe the world a collective apology for allowing this to happen. There is no acceptable excuse.

Unknown said...

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JohnB said...

Hey Sam, maybe you ought to actually read the comments before posting your advertisement. There on your website is the “Chapman Trick” spoken of above, a nasty trick that you’re using to sell your wares.

Cigarettes and the smoke they produce contain over 4,000 chemicals, over 60 of which are known to cause cancer.

Below you'll find a list of some of the more well-known highly toxic chemicals contained within every cigarette:
Hydrogen Cyanide: a highly poisonous gas used in execution chambers
Carbon monoxide: a poisonous gas found in car exhaust fumes
Formaldehyde: used as disinfectant and embalming fluid
Benzene: a toxic petrol additive and industrial solvent
Methanol: a poisonous alcohol used in anti-freeze


Sorry, Sam, but you sound like a pathetic opportunist.